The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus provided with an image pick-up equipment, a video recording and/or reproducing equipment, and a display equipment.
Recently, video cameras for home use have been popularized. Some of those video cameras are designed for the exclusive use for video recording but in general video cameras for home use are equipped with a video recording and reproducing function. There have been proposed some other video cameras integrally provided with a display device for a monitoring purpose in addition to the function mentioned above. Namely, the video camera is provided with a display device having a picture screen of approximately 3 inches in place of a conventional electronic view finder having a relatively narrow picture screen, and permitting usage as a view finder or a monitor for reproduction. Other video camera has been proposed, which contains a television tuner in addition to the devices or the functions mentioned above and displays video signals received by the television tuner on the above mentioned display device.
However, the video camera equipped with a number of functions as described above can be used in various ways, resulting in an extreme complexity in its manipulation. For example, it is possible in the above video camera to select a reproduced video signal of the camera or a received video signal from the television tuner for displaying on the display device, or it is possible to turn off the display device, as the electronic view finder works during recording of pictures. There has been a disadvantage that it is extremely troublesome for a user of the video camera to select a required function out of these functions by manipulating the switch. Furthermore, there has been another disadvantage that the complexity in manipulation often leaves a switch turned ON for an unwanted function, resulting in unnecessary power consumption.
The technique of combining a video camera with a television receiver and a liquid crystal display device is disclosed in the following prior art: Japanese Patent Disclosure Nos. Sho 61-67372, Sho 61-150474 and Japanese Device Patent Disclosure No. Sho 61-103968. However none of the prior art discloses a relationship between a power source circuit and a switching means for turning on and/or off each portion in the apparatus. Meanwhile, the applicant of the present patent application filed a patent application Ser. No. 185,491 in the U.S. Patent Office, the invention described in which application relates to an electronic still camera provided with a liquid crystal display monitor. This application describes an apparatus in which a picture taken by means of the electronic still camera is transferred to a video tape recorder connected thereto for magnetically recording on a magnetic tape and is displayed on a monitoring device.
The video camera apparatus according to the present invention comprises not only a simple combination of a video camera, a television receiver, a video recording and reproducing equipment and a liquid crystal display device but also a functional coupling of various functions for easy manipulation and novel usage.